{"id":5959,"date":"2009-09-29T07:25:08","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T23:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=5959"},"modified":"2009-09-29T07:25:08","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T23:25:08","slug":"thinking-aloud-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/09\/29\/thinking-aloud-follow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Aloud (follow-up)"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s an episode in Everybody Loves Raymond<\/em>, a comedy series that we rewatch over dinner regularly where Raymond gets into hot soup after he tells a lie to his wife Debra, and when quizzed, he has to tell more lies, and more and more family members get involved with each concocting more stories to cover for a previous fib.<\/p>\n

I usually avoid doing follow-up or subsequent posts<\/a> on News & Letters<\/a> posts too soon, if at all. Usually, the issues already receive a lot of press attention both in print, online and in coffee-shop talk.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s hard not to comment again on more news revelations on the beleagued<\/span> Miss Singapore – World 2009, especially when she’s giving media so much verbal fodder by continuing to respond to questions on her actions in the fiasco.<\/p>\n

\"MissThe sum of it is this: while there might had been some justifiable sympathy for Ms. Low’s poor diction and inability to speak proper English, the last round of news and her ‘confessions’ is making it (basically) very hard if at all possible to feel sorry for her anymore. And I’m not referring to the revelations that she had been convicted of credit fraud – which is bad enough as it is.<\/p>\n

Consider firstly her constant shifting and backpedaling<\/a>. It started off with Ms. Low denying that she had been involved in legal troubles<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“When The New Paper learnt of Ris’ legal troubles about a month ago and confronted her, she denied it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Then when the news broke in Mypaper’s expose, Ms. Low ‘fessed up but insisted that she did inform pageant organizer ERM<\/a>: <\/span><\/p>\n

“They said then that as long as the news did not get out, they would give me the opportunity to continue with the competition. Who would’ve thought this would leak out. Now that the whole thing is all blown up, I’m not so sure,’ said Ms Low.”<\/span><\/p>\n

And when ERM finally issued a terse statement pointing out that they were never told<\/a>, she now says:<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>When asked by The Straits Times and other papers last week whether the organisers knew about her conviction, she insisted that they did. But yesterday, Miss Low made an abrupt U-turn and confirmed ERM’s version of the events. She said she told the company about her brush with the law only after the My Paper story appeared last Friday.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, there’s also the trivalizing on the seriousness of her conviction when she said:<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>She added that she let on only after she was asked about it: ‘They ask then I tell lah, because actually I don’t find the point of telling…’ Asked why she did not come clean about her conviction from the start, she replied: ‘It’s still a record, but it’s not as though it’s that big… I was given a second chance to change.'”<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a couple of arguments flying around in her defense: and here’s my (very) short take on each one of them:<\/span><\/p>\n

That she was privately sponsored, and since no public money was spent, there is no need to publicly audit her winning the local segment of the contest. – Agree<\/strong>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Hence, she cannot be denied her chance at the finals in December as Miss Singapore – World. – Disagree<\/strong>. To have won the local segment is one thing. To participate in an international tournament as Miss Singapore – World is another: her representation is now squarely under public scrutiny since she’s now flying the flag of the country (so as to speak).<\/span><\/p>\n

That the credit card fraud was committed in a moment of folly<\/a>. – Disagree<\/strong>. Stealing a credit card once and impersonating as its owner once is a moment of folly. Repeatedly doing this using multiple cards on multiple occasions, and chalking up 60 other charges before a probation sentencing is not.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

That Singaporeans are very harsh on her. – Agree<\/strong>. But <\/strong>she’s invited a lot of these criticisms through sheer and repeated carelessness on her part.<\/span><\/p>\n

That everyone deserves a second chance. – Agree<\/strong>. But <\/strong>in Ms. Low’s case, she’s firstly asking for chances well beyond the first; and secondly, a second chance should not mean she must represent the country in an international event here and now when there is currently so much attention heaped on her failings. There will be other events where she can “fulfill her dreams” once she’s let the <\/span>furore subsided.<\/span><\/p>\n

I still feel a little sorry for her, but only on account that whatever she’s going through is a lot for a 19 year old. While the decision to crown her Miss Singapore – World could be argued as questionable in view of her language ability but was not of her doing, whatever that’s happened after that has largely been the result of her own actions, words and denials then backpedaling.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best thing for her to do now is to fade away and disappear off Singapore’s radar. There will be other opportunities for her. But while Ms. Low has insisted that she’s not ready to give up her crown despite all that’s happened, like Ling has remarked – I don’t think it’s her choice anymore. My hunch is that this fiasco will be resolved very soon – when she is politely ‘told’ to step down by event organizer ERM.<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Afternoon appendum: Looks like Ms. Low has surrendered<\/a> her title.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an episode in Everybody Loves Raymond, a comedy series that we rewatch over dinner regularly where Raymond gets into hot soup after he tells a lie to his wife Debra, and when quizzed, he has to tell more lies,<\/p>\n

Read More Thinking Aloud (follow-up)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-letters","wpcat-12-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}